Holidays Wine Dinner and 11 Wines

by Julian Schultz
             

      

I questioned Chris Liazos, Webster House owner/host/factotum, about his pouring 11 wines at the upcoming Holiday Wine Dinner: "Chris, are you sure you wish to incur that expense without raising the price for the dinner?"

Chris smiled: "At holidays, especially, the Webster House is like my home where I am happy to provide generous wine dinners for my guests. It's the same here…And you will be surprised, Julian, that with the six reception wines I will serve turkey pita that you love so much, and cheeses and fruits - these were not at the trial dinner or on the original menu."

"You're just too much, Chris," I said, "and I see that we will have the Mumm's Napa "Cuvée M" Sparkling Wine. Hey, this sells for $20." ($15.99 after O'Hara's Wines & Liquors' 20 percent wine dinner price, as are other discounted prices shown in the column.)

Chris, protesting: "Julian, I remember you once wrote in a wine column something like the bubbly is sexy, festive; a wine for wit, rejoicing, romance, seduction and naughtiness; for pouring at engagements, marriages, anniversaries, christenings and even at divorces. I think you said it also swells up women's boosooms - what are boosooms? For all those good reasons, I think I am not extravagant to include the Mumm's."

"Well, I am pleased you are pouring this premium California bubbly, a great choice, Chris."

My statement to Chris, if overheard by some paranoid Francophiles, would get me in trouble; especially from the tipplers who bleat that only French Champagnes deserve to occupy the rarified pinnacles of bubbly splendor and to sparkle in your fluted glasses. Then follows their chauvinistic retort for French Champagne that I have heard countless times: "Americans use too much wood, (and too much this, too much that) and release their sparklers too young."

Why do I anger them when I suggest innocently that I think they like to "kiss the French Champagne" but love to "drink the American bubbly?"

Now…I aver that sparkling wines should be served neat at receptions or only with certain hors d'oeuvres. I further subscribe to that contentious contention when I say that all wine is meant for food and must not be drunk by itself…except for one magnificent wine that is appropriate without food. And that one magnificent wine is poured before we sit down to the dinner table - ah! sparkling wine; but with certain exceptions, however, and Chris's turkey pita and piquant cheeses are among the exceptions.

Arriving at the restaurant, I was surprised to see salty-tongued Sadyie Saddletush. Surprised because at an earlier wine dinner she had protested that she was intimidated by my "Mid-Victorian wine snobbishness," which was why, she said, she was loathe to attend wine dinners and probably wouldn't in the future…So what changed her mind, I wondered.

I remembered the incident that had triggered her protest and criticism: "Not fat enough, reticently coy," said a table companion at the Sonoma Restaurant some months ago. I smoothed my mustache and looked around expecting to admire the slim, coquettish woman he was referring to.

"Where?" I asked. He pointed to the wine that he was pouring into a cardboard container: "Too lean, affectedly demure, too tart, titillating, flirtatious, seductive…a siren on the palate."

He was playing the wine game of elaborate nonsense one-upmanship. So I would play, too: "It grieves me to disagree, but this Primavera Mista '92 is fat enough for balance and will launch a thousand palates. Its color sparkles like diamonds around a willowy woman's winsome neck; it's a genial genie in a wine bottle, conferring flavors of ineffable magic."

Sadyie across the table angrily protested, "I don't understand one goddamn word you assho - err-I mean, you as holdovers from Mid-Victorian wine snobbery are spewing: taffeta phrases, silken terms, piled-high hyperboles, pedantic words. You're turning off wine novices like me, which is why I'm hesitant about attending wine dinners."

Her words sobered me. I had heard about intimidation from neophytes at wine tastings, especially where wine jargon was pompously spoken. They were unwilling to speak for fear of sounding foolish.

I told Sadyie that we were just being frivolous; but were she to attend friendly, interesting and entertaining wine dinners - like here at the Webster House -- and wine tastings, she would understand that wine-speak and fun statements are a mixture of objective descriptions, fanciful associations, judgmental expressions, elaborate nonsense and pompous posturing.

I suggested that by keeping her eyes, ears and mouth open, she would increase her wine knowledge in quantum measure and would be comfortable in the wine-speak environment. Most importantly, I added, she must not be on the defensive and cringe with inferiority complex.

My last statement of advice angered her: "Listen, you pompous ass, don't talk to me about my being defensive or feeling inferior. Where I am in control, as in my law practice, I am known as "the two-titted terror from Townsend" and I am treated with respect!"

Whew! I was taken aback, but managed to challenge her to attend wine dinners and tastings and to prove me wrong.

That is why I was surprised to see her at the Webster House Holiday Wine Dinner. I say to the entire wide world out there where this column will go on the www.oxfordwineroom.com internet connection that salty-tongued Sadyie Saddletush is one quick learner:

She was describing the Chasseur "Russian River" Pinot Noir to her table mates at the adjoining table: "…. a saucy leprechaun. It kisses, licks, bites, thrusts and stings. Yes, it's a mischievous young elf, slyly recalling all my un-kissed kisses and songs never sung."

I gasped. She was uninhibited throughout the dinner, an awesome Sadyie Loose Lips now. Speaking with her during dessert, she said she had attended wine dinners at Peppercorns, at The Castle, as a guest at the International Wine & Food Society, at the Sonoma, and participated in a few wine tastings.

The Holiday Wine Dinner. Our wine glasses ranneth over! Six wines to sample representing Argentina, New Zealand, Spain and three from California before we sat down to dinner with five more. Before sniffs and sips we pampered our palates from the hors d'oeuvres table filled with turkey pitas…I ate pita...ate pita…ate pita, cheese, fruit and crunchy bread. Oi, vey! And the dinner hadn't started yet!

I rated the Blind River New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc 2002, $10.39, and California Chasseur "Russian River" Pinot Noir 2001, $23.99, as excellent - "superb" by the more excitable among us.

My abbreviated notes on the Sauvignon Blanc: "big nose, palate wash of ripe juicy pears, grass, vanilla/oak; crisp, firm, lively, lingering. Price value, equating $10.39 price with palate pleasure: 150/100." Pinot Noir: "happy surprise; it ain't Burgundy and it's super! Elegant texture (means, light), balanced, full-fruited with berries, cinnamon, soft tannin, hint of oak; smooth swallow, moderately long aftertaste: Price value: 125/100 after $24 price equation."

Elsa Semillion/Chardonnay 2002, from Argentina, despite its nice lemon/lime nose and pleasing taste, was not up to the level of the above wines, but…. at $5.99, it merits a 125/100 price value.

William Hill Chardonnay 2002, from Napa, disappointed. Some vanilla and sweet oak in the nose, but the flavor was muted, sub-surface; offered nothing to my palate. Even at $10.99, and even if Parker had pronounced it blessed by a bevy of angels, I wouldn't bust my posterior - or leave the baby submerged in the bathtub - and rush helter-skelter, breathless, panting to the nearest wine shop. Price Value: 100/100.

The sparkling Mumm's Cuvee M: With added unfermented muscat grape dosage, the bubbly is zesty with small bubbles; is sweet-edged, crisp, clean, lively, refreshing with pears and peaches flavors; altogether delightful - no, it has not Dom Perignon's complexity; but at $15.99, it has a 120/100 price value for me.

Vina Rey "70 Barricas" Tempranillo, Spain 2001, $6.99, nice fruit, but too much rough tannin for acceptable balance; because of its solid fruit, the wine has staying power; aging will soften the tannin. Price value: 100/100.

Now to the sit down dinner at the upstairs function room. (The reception was held in the lower smaller wine-tasting room - crowded with 60 of us.)

First course: roast pumpkin soup was atypically piquantly seasoned with tart complex green onion, herbs and nutmeg, and accompanied by the spatlese-like sweetness of the Schuman Nagler Riesling German Kabinett 2002, $9.59 (mind boggling at this price!). I tasted hints of honey and cloves, peaches, pears, citrus, a nuance of sweet berries; finished with apricots and sweet ginger accents; offered sweet counterpoint to well seasoned soup. No fisticuffs at the trial dinner; we unanimously agreed on the selection. Price quality value of the wine at $9.59 is 150/100.

Sadyie ate ecstatically, saying the novel preparation of the pumpkin soup reminded her of her "unique first time roll in the hay."

I interrupted to warn Sadyie, saying 7-year-old-kids might be reading the column and rolls in hay might be suggestive to their innocent minds.

Sadyie made an annoyed "face" and muttered something about the soup and wine integration as being "smooth as a baby's ass - err, I mean baby's bottom."

Second course: "Oh, wow! The…tenderest…moistest…most delicious fish of my gourmandizing life!" Sadyie's ecstacy was much too vocal, evoking frowning stares towards our table. "This winter flounder with lemon-butter sauce, string beans and carrots falls away with hardly a nudge of my fork," she continued, ignoring the stares.

Jean Babtiste Adam Pinot Gris from Alsace, France, 2002, $9.59, proudly accompanied the flounder. The pairing was perfection. Sadyie was uncontained now as she savored the wine: "Mélange of dried fruits, creamy viscosity, as balanced as a circus tightrope walker, and as lasting as my super stud's -- err - prolonged -err -- embrace."

I shushed her! "Sadyie, I can't report your unseemly evaluations in this column. There may be 7-year-olds out there……."

Third course: roast breast of duck, deliciously escorted by Grand Marnier liqueur fruit sauce of peaches and grapes; tender wild rice completed the dish. I wouldn't say the duck was the most tender of my experience…but it wasn't the chewiest either. Fortunately, the fruit sauce and rice were so satisfying that I had no concern as I gnawed away on the duck, nor did I have indigestion later in the evening.

Vina Salamanca Tinto, Spain, 2001, $5.99, was a highly satisfying escort to the duck, as well as pleasing to the palate and purse. Big with fruit, soft with tannin, nicely balanced in texture and fruit acids, its flavors of plums and berries elicited favorable murmurs and scribbled orders for purchase. Price value: 150/100.

Fourth course: Superb…tender…moist….perfectly seasoned: sliced roast tenderloin of beef over a hunter sauce of sliced mushrooms and petite parsley-ed potatoes. Although, well stuffed now from the turkey pitas and the prior three courses, I was determined not to succumb to satiety.

Two sensational wines from Argentina were consort: Alamos Bonarda 2001, $7.99, and Catena Malbec, 2001, $15.99. Dilemma: Although both wines had everything going for them -- and in spades -- as bridge players are wont to say, should I buy two of the Bonarda for the price of one Malbec?

A puzzlement: I exulted over the luscious Medoc-like cassis and Bordeaux replication of the Bonarda, and at $7.99 I was ready to dismiss the Catena (perhaps the best winegrower from Argentina). But after tasting the Catena, which is a bigger wine, more assertive, deeper, more imposing on the palate with fruit varieties, but at twice the price of the Bonarda - what do I do? If the Catena had been blind-bagged and someone said it was a Mouton-Rothschild, I wouldn't have argued. Both wines price values are well above the 100 norm.

Suddenly, my late wife, Lillian, generated a thought: "Buy two of the Catena and four of the Bonarda, dear, although I don't know when you'll ever get around to drink them." Table companion, Dr. Harry Pappas, asked me why did my eyes tear up? I said Lillian always had a simple solution to my most complicated problems.

"Oh, Helena Liazos, you'll be the excessive weight of me!" Dessert: warm chocolate molten (liquefied middle) cake -- light, airy, delicious, with a variety of delicious flavors, accented with an orange reduction sauce and improved with chocolate rich pastry cream ganache - irresistible! I was not disciplined enough to forgo; I was glad I didn't, nor did I see anything but empty plates going back to the kitchen.

Kudos to the waitstaff of Sean Maynard, Jen Smetana (Clark graduate student) and Bernadette Persall. Cheers to chef Joan St. Denis-Clarico who prepared the dinner with assistance of John Hammerstrom and Helena Liazos. Congratulations to Ric Proctor, wine importer rep of Vic Zelinsky Associates, and to Jeff Ghertler of M.S. Walker, distributor, for their enlightening comments.

Game wine dinner, Wednesday, January 14. Reserve now before it is sold out as this one was.

Wine Pick: Dry Creek Old Vines Zinfandel 2001, $21, blended with 15 percent Petite Sirah. A big, lush, imposing 14.3 percent alcohol beauty from averaged 85-year-old vines, it offers aromas of blackberries, raspberries and smacks of cloves. Berry flavors flood the palate with hints of earth, spice and coffee. Oak aged for 16 months, the zin has underpinning of vanilla and soft wood. Dry Creek never disappoints, has been a frequent Wine Pick here.

Wine Pick: Louis M. Martini Premium Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2000, $35, blended with 6 percent Merlot. Aged 26 months in French, other European and American barrels to soften tannins, add vanilla subtlety, better expose the fruit. In the nose and on the palate discover layered flavors anise, spice, plum, berries, cherries with nuances of leather and soft oak. A well-knit big wine with a firm balance, it promises increased pleasure and complexity during its 8 to 10 years aging. World-class craftsmanship; big time wine.

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julian@oxfordwineroom.com